gulag of our designs. coming up on our t.v. it seems the catholic church and the pope of copy of the n.s.a. and italian magazine reports that the n.s.a. was spying on the vatican and the people more on the holy find revelations ahead and in syria an important deadline on chemical weapons was reached weapon inspectors say that the syrian government's chemical weapons have now been destroyed or rendered inoperable coming up we'll look at the latest coming out of syria. and on the internet there is a video of a man calling out senator john mccain he criticized mccain for supporting us to prevention in syria calling for the top politician to be arrested and tried for treason we'll speak with the marine about his actions later in the show.

it's thursday october thirty first eight pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. we begin tonight with the latest revelation to leak regarding the national security agency and italian magazine called an around the is now reporting that the spy agency has targeted the internal communications at the vatican along with the in going and outgoing phone calls a future pope francis' according to the reports the n.s.a. was intercepting calls from in and out of the rome residence where the cardinals stayed during the papal conclave additionally the magazine details how the n.s.a. has been categorizing those phone calls into everything from foreign policy objectives to threats to the financial system that it can spokesman father federico lombardi quickly dismissed these allegations and said quote we don't know anything about this and in any case we don't have any concerns about it the n.s.a. is also responded. the allegations by saying that quote the national security

agency does not target the vatican assertions that the n.s.a. has targeted the vatican published in italy's panorama magazine are not true however this article comes in the wake of a damning report based on documents released by former government contractor edward snowden of course we now know that the spy agency has monitored the communications of thirty five different world leaders along with many of the citizens in their respective countries so here to give us a little more insight on how the church is responding to these allegations i was joined earlier by jimmy akin he's a senior apologist at catholic dot com i started out by asking him how detrimental this was to u.s. relations with the vatican. i don't think they're particularly detrimental the attitude that father lombardi displayed in his statement i think is pretty typical of what you'd expect in terms of whether the allegations are true the vatican should say the italian press is pretty rumor fed and without citing sources you

can't really place a lot of confidence in what it says normally but in this case we know that all the major world powers spy on all the other major world powers all the time so i don't think the reporters particularly in doubt i would assume that the u.s. is spying on the vatican just like it does every other country and like you mentioned the vatican is saying that they're not at all concerned about this of course it is a very different reaction than that of other countries who have found out that they are being spied on i mean what do you really make of that response i think it's because i think the difference is because of what the vatican is if you're a normal country like germany or england or france you know the u.s. is spying on you but when that comes to the attention of the press you want to act outraged to reassure your population that you're taking steps to deal with the problem on the other hand the holy see is not a normal nation it's not concerned with national politicking the way france or germany or or or or england would be instead it's concerned with getting the

message of jesus christ out to the world and so it's native instinct is going to be to try to rise above that kind of national politicking outrage share and jimmy you know we've long heard popes rail against war and come inequality not quite the most controversial of issues so why do you think the n.s.a. even cares about what's going on at the vatican well. the holy see. is the head of the catholic church i mean it's the organization that heads the catholic church and one in six human beings is a catholic there are a billion catholics in the world that means that the pope and the people around him have a lot of influence in the world and it would only be natural that the u.s. would be interested in what they're planning on doing and indeed the holy see has cooperated with the u.s. . had a role for example in ending the cold war and bringing down the soviet bloc pope john paul the second cooperated with margaret thatcher and ronald reagan to do that

he did it in a behind the scenes way but that was an important incident of cooperation the holy see has also taken positions that have influenced american policy in other ways most recently when president obama seemed intent on going to war with syria the current pope pope francis organized a world day of prayer to stop that and guess what and we're not on war with syria. absolutely well according to the magazine the n.s.a. has been categorizing the vatican's communication into four different categories i want to take a look at them there's leadership intentions with a colleague or ship intentions foreign policy objectives human rights and then threats of the financial system now i find the last one the most interesting what threats to the financial system does the vatican pose or might might oppose well that one's a bit of a head scratcher for me because the holy see doesn't have a particularly large amount of economic clout kasia only the holy see will make

statements about policy suggestions for maybe how to help the world economy and how to help people grow and develop particularly in the developing world but it's it doesn't wield a lot of financial power it it isn't that big financially it does have an institute known as the institute for the works of religion which is kind of a bank that set up to help coordinate charitable activities and currently the pope both pope francis and his predecessor pope benedict had been working to kind of clean up some of the activity there and put the vatican bank on a more rigorous footing and integrated into the european banking system but it's a small bank in the scale of things and so i don't i don't really know what kind of threats they would imagine the holy see would pose dollar very very interesting i really appreciate you coming on and giving us some insight on that jamie a senior apologist at catholic dot com thank you you thank. and it's no secret that

the life of former government contractor edward snowden has been anything but normal for the past five months but just a few months after getting asylum in russia it seems like the whistleblower may be headed back to a normal gys because according to his lawyer he's now secured unself a brand new job artie's igor piskun up has more putting so i thought he could fit in a lawyer who's also been representing edward snowden in russia the former n.s.a. contractor will start working for a major russian web site in the vm or so possibly even soon as to morrow and its departments. which again they didn't specify which web site exactly we do know the earlier russia's largest social networks going back to the offered him a job as a security specialist so we don't know whether or not snowden will actually be going to work or will he be doing it from home since his exact location is still unknown due to security reasons that was our t.v.

corpus cannot reporting. president obama will host iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki at the white house tomorrow the white house said in a statement that the discussion between the leaders will focus on the long term post-war partnership between iraq and the united states that post-war partnership is something the prime minister is extremely concerned about as the security and stability of iraq unravels prime minister al maliki made that message very clear today while speaking publicly at the united states institute of peace our key arabic correspondent rym of la india has more. there is one message iraq's prime minister nouri maliki has been pushing during his visit to washington d.c. this week help me fight terrorism in my country because maliki says will not only help iraq but the region here's what he said during his speech this morning in washington d.c. . by all countries and societies worldwide we want an international war

a global war against terror if we have to war we want to assert. war against those who are killing people getting population who are calling for blood for ignorance. and. logic. to govern our daily lives the main challenge iraq faces remains the same a rise of attacks that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians arise now he says as a result of violence in syria but maliki was in washington d.c. to try to convince both the administration and the lawmakers to step up their support to help him fight terrorism in iraq is having trouble convincing them come with who experts say take a harder line on iraq that obama sent a letter to the u.s. president asking him to be tougher on maliki and they say they blame the maliki

government for the rise of violence in iraq the letter says that maliki pursues a sixty ariane and authoritarian agenda which strengthens al qaida in iraq senator mccain one of the six republicans and democrats who signed the letter saying that washington's assistance to iraq should be sized to a new more developed strategy and real changes in iraq so experts know that maliki will face many challenges in trying to convince both the administration and the congress to as he said in his speech make a fresh start in a complicated relationship with the u.s. and his meeting with president obama at the white house tomorrow is only one step forward on a very bumpy road the miles from the. questions in d.c. . and the international chemical weapons watchdog group responsible for overseeing

the destruction of syria's chemical weapons now says the country has met its deadline meaning all chemical weapons have been destroyed or rendered an operable organization for what for the prohibition of chemical weapons says its teams inspected twenty one out of twenty three chemical weapon sites across the country the other two were too dangerous to inspect but the group says the chemical equipment had already been transferred over to secure sites it's something that was discussed today as congressional leaders met to talk about the state of syria at a special senate foreign relations committee hearing artie's sam sachs bring us more brings us more from the capital here leigh two months ago the senate foreign relations committee approved using military force in syria to respond to alleged chemical weapons use it was a close vote in the committee ten senators supporting using force seven senators against but ultimately u.s. military strikes were averted after the russian stepped in and negotiated a deal approved by the assad government in syria and the un security council to

turn over chemical weapons to the international body for destruction war was averted well today that same senate foreign relations committee met again to be updated on the situation in syria at this hearing comes just as the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons announced that syria will meet the imposed november first deadline to have all chemical weapons production and mixing facilities destroyed given the progress made over the intervening months using diplomacy instead of committee approved military strikes some senators question the ability of the u.s. military to solve problems around the world there were senators ed markey in tim kaine both democrats we have to approach all of this with a lot of humility given what we've learned after we intervened in iraq in libya in afghanistan. after what we've seen go on in egypt so we should just have a little humility in the united states terms of our ability to control events on

the ground in these countries there's a fatigue that the american public are feeling now about the limits of our efforts in this part of the world as senator mark you mentioned the kind of we've we we've had you brits and now we have you melody about the effects of our outcomes ultimately though disarming syria of chemical weapons is just one issue the other is the civil war that has claimed the lives of more than one hundred thousand people and created a humanitarian crisis while raging for more than two years with another round of talks in geneva slated for next month the american ambassador to syria robert ford argued that the u.s. must continue its support to the syrian opposition to strengthen their hand heading into negotiations where the u.s. and the opposition will demand assad step down from power but ultimately this is a problem that needs to be solved by syrians not by u.s. missiles ultimately senator syrians must fix this problem and ultimately senator it's going to require them to sit down at

a table the sooner they start the better but in the meantime we will keep helping the opposition senator in response senators bob corker and john mccain one of the fiercest war hawks in the senate expressed regret that the u.s. hasn't done more militarily to help the opposition i think our help to the opposition has been on embarrassment and i find it appalling that you had said here and act as if. we're doing the things we said we would do i am now at a position tragically where i now will have to rely on the saudis to provide them with the weapons that they need because it is patently obvious that the united states of america is not going to do so so there's still a lot of varying opinions on the senate foreign relations committee but for now most senators seem ready to let diplomacy keep working which is a big change from just two months ago when the same senators stepped to the

precipice of war on capitol hill in washington d.c. same socks are to. and a new video is now surfacing that shows a u.s. marine sternly addressing senator john mccain at a town hall meeting in his home state of arizona a young marine named blame cooper read an impassioned letter to the senator where he called him treasonous for encouraging the obama administration to intervene in syria take a look your actions against this country are treasonous all of you against the will of the american people have aided and abetted the enemy you and the rest of congress including the president of the united states have went against the will of your people and syria in syria regardless of your position in vote whether it is a yes or no is still a political smokescreen you swore an oath to protect us and part protect from all enemies both foreign and domestic the simple irony is the domestic enemy now in

this country is the people in government of the united states and mccain a new and the rest of our leaders are accountable for their actions i was joined earlier by marine blame cooper himself to talk a little bit more about what happened that day i first asked him what pushed him to accuse senator mccain of treason in such a bold fashion. well with the destabilize the destabilization in syria i felt that as a citizen and what's going on in government that a lot of these people that i talk to throughout the internet. who are very good close friends of mine throughout the middle east and here in the states wanted this to be able to tell this to their leaders but nobody is going to their leaders in tolland in these things and asking you nice questions you know why are we finding an al qaeda civil war in syria the u.s. policies in the middle east and in syria or destabilizing the reeds in creating

chaos and countless christians are being killed because of it and i felt i had to say something because nobody else was indeed it was a very bold one and just said to get your opinion specifically on syria why do you think the u.s. government was so intent on pushing to intervene militarily. it's funny how they use the children as a a weapon to try to get military intervention in syria. i believe it's all over and the oil gas line that's running through syria seems that all of our wars we've pushed have a deeper agenda and we run america tries to run under the guise that we're trying to fight terrorism but really it's about resources i believe share and you are of course a marine would you say that there are others in the marine corps that have similar concerns or beliefs. oh yes definitely thousands and that's why i had to go confront them the way i did because

a lot of them want to ask these questions and politicians why are you doing this. and you seemed pretty sure in your speech that the u.s. is aiding terrorists some of these elected officials have defended their actions by saying that they are only working off of the evidence they've been provided by intelligence agencies so where's the discrepancy do you think officials are getting all of the information they need to make the right decisions for the country. i think what the politicians are doing are lying to the american people i think they know darn well what they're doing specifically in egypt where you had thirty eight million people rise up against mahama morosi which you know the u.s. united states government gave them one point three billion dollars bomb was a big supporter of marlin morosi which is a sponsor of terrorism and he's a part of the muslim brotherhood the people egypt these stood up thirty percent of those people were christians and so we're just not going to do it anymore and they

threw out muhammad morosely lindsey graham and john mccain both went over there to try to get him back in the power of the people threw him out. sure and blame i do want to take a look at what senator mccain had to say in response to your statement i'm going to play that now but also i look forward to you running for office. nobody's preventing it from that even in this treasonous country i understand that there's a great deal of controversy about some issues but honestly sir when you say that we are guilty of treason that is something that frankly i can't dignify with a response. so mccain said that responding would be beneath him he couldn't dignify it with a response i'll give you the opportunity to respond to that since you didn't at the town hall what are your thoughts. well my thoughts would be was why does he feel it's beneath him the people like him to do a job to represent people and clearly the politicians are representing themselves

so i think that he'll lose all the american people in x x x y a response of why he's why the politicians are doing this in the middle east and in syria that was blamed cooper u.s. marine an activist. and more than a thousand people gathered this week in santa rosa california to protest the fatal shooting of thirteen year old andy lopez it was just a week ago that the teenager was shot and killed by a county sheriff who saw lopez holding a pellet gun that resembled an a k forty seven rifle according to the police account to sonoma county sheriff's deputies salo pez carrying what appeared to be a rifle and immediately called for backup officers then allegedly repeatedly asked lopez to drop the weapon and when lopez turned to face the officers one of them deputy erik del house opened fire shooting the young boy seven times the parents and the community of andy lopez are frustrated over the shooting they say did not

have to happen and they brought that frustration to a rally this week where they carried signs that read a post we're all in the lopez the whole damn system is guilty and andy did not have to die to talk a little bit more about the controversy surrounding this incident i spoke earlier with artie's ramon good lindo i first asked him what protesters think could or should have been done to prevent this incident. well this community in santa rosa in northern california is still in a state of shock and mourning after the shooting of thirteen year old andy lopez now houses that he thought he was in danger and the community was in danger when he saw the lopez's toy gun knows a toy going to the time because they remember it resembles in a case so much but so much so many people in the community are still wondering why it is that somebody that is so highly trained cannot use less lethal way of

confronting the lopez from from the sounds of the eyewitness reports and even the testimony of the deputies themselves this all happened very quickly and and as you as we've seen over the past week thousands of people have come out to show their support and love for the family and at this point is there any investigation open as to whether this deputy even acted appropriately in the way he used his weapon while on duty. right well. who's involved in the shooting has been placed on administratively veteran of over two decades of in law enforcement now the f.b.i. has launched their own independent investigation i called the f.b.i. office in the bay area this morning still waiting for response from them the santa rosa police and the petaluma p.d. are also investigating this and no more county sheriff because in sonoma county there is a protocol that's been in place for a couple decades now that police agency involved in officer involved shooting

cannot investigate itself in this actually comes from a string of officer involved shootings back in the one nine hundred ninety s. from back in the ninety's there in sonoma county but still despite all these investigations happening there are many in the community who fear that there's not enough transparency in this in that this case will unfortunately turn out like so many other police shootings where the shooting is ruled justified. and interestingly remonde when anyone has was shot he was wearing a hoodie which is a pretty big fan ball there were others at the rally wearing hoodies in solidarity as they protested do you think if it reminded people at all of what happened in the case of trayvon martin and did you see the issue of race or racial profiling discussed at all. the problem a racial profiling and police brutality has been a big issue in the bay area even before trayvon martin i mean the brutality movement has gained a lot of steam in recent years especially after the shooting of oscar grant which

has gone viral on you tube yeah and the lopez was wearing a hoodie at the time that he wished he wasn't wearing the hoodie was not at the time of the shooting but really in this community there does seem to be a lot of. a lot of animosity between the latino community and police in fact sonoma county sheriff has a. division within its apartment which really. shows that this animosity goes way back and and from the looks of the response that we've seen following the shooting that animosity is still quite strong and around as i understand during this rally there was definitely a police presence can you talk a little bit about the rationale why why were there so many were there arrests made or were the were the protests peaceful while the family of andy lopez has pleaded with the public and demonstrators to remain peaceful and and they've heeded those calls yes we've seen pictures and videos of police in riot gear. trying to

protect certain property from protesters they've told the local media that they expect outside agitators and vandalism however has had been and things have remained peaceful and from the looks of it there will continue to be vigils and rallies throughout the next several days in order to lend support to the lopez's family and to hopefully keep this case in the public limelight hoping that just will be served either way absolutely well we'll have to follow this for sure we'll have you back on again our teaser mungle endo thanks just when you sign you couldn't be any more insecure about your weight based on what society sets as a standard tonight's resident explores how it's not just average citizens trying to keep trim unfit it's now soldiers in the military who must maintain their weight or they can be kicked out take a look. we

live in a world a bureaucratic rules and regulations that make no sense whatsoever that spawns work arounds ways for people to get around those rules that make even the last cent and it all adds up to a big red tape vortex of stupid this case of bureaucratic crap features the literal tape in the us armed forces there exists something called the tape test where and enlisted man has his waist and neck measured with a tape measure then his neck circumference is subtracted from his waist circumference and that to terminate the man's search conference value if the enlisted man doesn't meet the pentagon standards he could be kicked out or refused

a promotion he is also ordered to spend months in an exercise and nutrition program which marines call pork chop platoon or donut brigade apparently the pentagon's fitness standards are just as outdated as those euphemisms the body of the american man has been getting a lot flabbier this whole larry is three d. model of the current typical american male body that was just unleashed on the world shows captain america isn't looking so fit these do so accordingly more and more soldiers are having trouble passing the pentagon tape test the number of soldiers kicked out of the army for being overweight has jumped ten fold in the past five years and this is where the red tape work around the vortex of stupid is spawned because more and more soldiers are now enlisting for a lifeboat. they're getting plastic surgery to meet the tape test

requirement. some plastic surgeons have reported a thirty percent increase in military clientele saying they've even had military commanders recommend troops to them for the procedure many fitness experts and doctors agree that the tape test doesn't reflect the person's true hell but military officials are standing behind the tape test saying it's still the best god forbid they reevaluating their fitness standards to focus on whether or not a man is really healthy you know it makes much more sense for soldiers to get plastic surgery to pass them antiquated test you should all fear america world because we have something very scary and that is an evil giant more attacks of red tape tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the rest of it.

and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered today go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir a david and from all of us here at r.t. have a happy happy halloween and a great night. is the united states spying on its allies and turmoil did used for obamacare democratic congressman adam schiff and republican congress will be terry joined this revealed was the blazers and amy holmes and democratic strategists were just brawler faceoff on u.s. spying obamacare or it's all tell about their. politics with larry.

hello there i marinate and this is boom bust here are some of the stories we're tracking for you today. j.p. morgan city of sideline their cheap currency dealers in london following allegations of currency market manipulation we'll tell you about the chat room yes that's right chat rooms that got them into some very hot water and the man who personified brazil's broom is now busted. wow that's what's hard to say but tista built a financial empire but yesterday his flagship oil company declared the biggest bankruptcy in latin american history we'll talk about how all the chips came tumbling down and you want a man who cuts through the jargon with you.